Sitting on the Waves
by Sgamer82
Summary: On a little island, Nami has begun a big change. Is it part of a plan by a mysterious pair? If so, what could their intentions be?
1. Examination

**DISCLAIMER:** _One Piece_, and all characters of not created solely for this fanfic are the property of Eiichiro Oda and anyone else who owns them.**  
**

**AUTHOR'S NOTE (June 20, 2007):** I recently did a re-write of this fic. No content was removed or changed too dramatically. I mostly just re-typed it and cleaned up wordings and typos I spotted now that I had missed then. The new version, due to a bit of rearranging of events, has lessened. But I plan to only remove chapters that had no reviews on them and replace the ones that did with the proper events.

* * *

**_ONE PIECE  
SITTING ON THE WAVES_  
CHAPTER 1: EXAMINATION**  
BY  
Sgamer82

In a tavern, a man and woman sat together. They had no connection. He had his goals and she had hers. It just so happened that their goals happened to intertwine on this occasion. 

"So, have you done it?" the man asked. 

"Yes, I have." the woman answered, "The effects have started, but it will be gradual." 

"Good." 

"I don't see why I couldn't just do it all at once like I usually do." 

"It's not possible. It would attract too much unwanted attention this time. We can't risk that. Not with these people. We'd best be careful if this is going to work out like it should." 

"Yes." the woman said, "You're right." 

They both looked out a nearby window. It had a great view of the harbor. Docked there was a pirate ship. A caravel decorated on the main sail and flag with a skull and crossbones wearing a straw hat.

----------

In the vast equatorial sea called the Grand Line, Redisca village was known as "the town of second chances." Any could enter the village, no matter their past deeds, so long as they behaved themselves. Even pirates were allowed to come and go as they pleased. The pirates, generally not stupid enough to lose a good thing, never harmed the village. Not when sober, anyway. So nobody particularly cared about the arrival of pirate Monkey D. Luffy and his one hundred million Berry reward. Nor did they think anything of Luffy's crewmates, Roronoa Zoro and Nico Robin, who possessed sixty and seventy-nine million Berry rewards respectively. 

For the Straw Hat pirate crew, this was the perfect place to relax for a little while. They had learned from the villagers that the Log Pose, required for Grand Line navigation, required a few weeks to set itself to this location and begin pointing to a new island. With no worries ahead of them, the crew took full advantage of this time. 

On the deck of the _Going Merry_ the crew's doctor, human-reindeer Tony Tony Chopper, had convinced the crew to do for a while, but which the crew had been generally too busy for.

"Ah! That's cold!" 

"I'm sorry, but that's how a stethoscope's supposed to be." Chopper replied to his patient. 

Chopper was giving the entire crew full physicals. Currently he was examining Nami, the crew's navigator, measuring her heartbeat with the stethoscope under her T-shirt. 

"I know that…" she said, "I've just always hated those things. Ever since I was little." 

Chopper removed the stethoscope and jotted down some notes on a clipboard. 

"Okay, we're done." 

"Finally!" Nami exclaimed, "I don't see why this was so important. Didn't you do this when you first joined up?" 

"Some basic measurements, yes; like height and weight." Chopper answered, his usual shyness absent as he talked about the field he was most confident in, "This is the first chance I've had for real thorough examinations." 

Nami snuck a look at Chopper's clipboard. It had several papers clipped to it, each with information regarding the other five members of the Straw Hat crew as well as Nami herself. Still, much as she understood the practicality of having detailed records of the crew's health on hand; she would much rather have been looking through shops in the village. They didn't have anything spectacular, but there were a lot of good traveling clothes, and much of Nami's wardrobe had begun to wear out with all the crew's adventures. 

As Chopper began reviewing his notes, Nami left the _Merry_ to start her trek to the village clothing stores. She wondered if she could meet up with Robin on the way or, failing that, Luffy, whose almost pathological inability to lie made him a good judge of how she looked in a given outfit.

Meanwhile, Chopper had noticed something odd in his notes. Something didn't add up. A set of measurements now and one from the first time he'd taken them were different. Chopper knew that both should be accurate, he was very careful both times he took them. This meant it was quite strange that the two numbers wouldn't match up. 

Chopper wouldn't have been bothered if the current number was higher than the old. But since when do humans get _shorter _in height at age eighteen? 

Puzzling.

* * *

** AUTHORS NOTE:** The "Luffy-as-clothing-judge" joke is not mine. But instead comes from "Drabbles" by Icka M. Chif. It is used with permission. 


	2. No Size Fits Her

**_ONE PIECE  
SITTING ON THE WAVES_  
CHAPTER 2: NO SIZE FITS HER**  
BY  
Sgamer82

Redisca village consisted of a good-sized little town about half a mile from a small dock where visiting and local sailors moored their ships. Halfway between town and docks was a single building. The building was painted in pastel colors, the lower half of every wall decorated with children's paintings and scribbles. The front and back ends of the building had a white fence on the edges, forming a rectangle with the actual structure directly in the middle. The Chibi no Mi (or "Little Fruit") Nursery was an orphanage. A place where those who had lost families might eventually find a happy home. 

Nami walked the path into town instead of hiring a coach at the docks. No way was she paying good Berries to ride a distance she knew she could walk. She found two of her crewmates at the orphange, apparently having a good time with the kids. Usopp had a captive audience as he told some of the kids, sitting around him in a circle, about the Straw Hat pirates' many exploits. She managed to catch a bit of his current story as she passed. He was telling the story of his and Chopper's battle in Alabasta with the Mr. 4 pair, agents of Baroque Works. The kids sat and listened, entranced at the tale. 

Luffy was on the other side of the road, laughing as the more active youngsters pulled and twisted his rubber body around. Somehow they had convinced him to become their personal maypole and were in the process of tying Luffy up in his own arms. 

With all the laughing, happy children around, Nami couldn't help smiling herself. She waved at Luffy and Usopp as she walked by. Usopp waved back but Luffy was currently so twisted he couldn't get his arms up. He did shout a greeting, at least. Nami looked to the main building of the orphange and saw a young-looking woman standing at the door, watching the children contently. Nami recognized her immediately as the woman in charge of the orphanage. Her name was Leda. 

She and Sanji had met her shortly after arriving at the island. Sanji had insisted on escorting her into town. Upon passing the orphanage, Leda had introduced herself and shook hands with Nami, then ordered Sanji to put out his cigarette. She found it a filthy habit and didn't wish any of her children picking up on it. Sanji, never able to resist a lady's request, did as instructed. 

Nami waved at the motherly-looking woman as she walked by. Nami would have stopped to chat, but she wanted to get to the clothing stores before any of the good stuff was bought out.

---------

In the clothing shop, Nami discarded her sixth outfit and began to try a seventh. She couldn't understand what was wrong. Each outfit she had tried so far was too big. She checked each and every label. They were all her size. Did Redisca use some different size scale she wasn't aware of. 

Nami took off the seventh outfit. Too large _again_. This was ridiculous. She was too frustrated to try on anymore clothes. She reached for the T-shirt she'd come in wearing when, by pure chance, she caught a glimpse of something out of the corner of her eye. She looked over her shoulder to get a better look.

---------

At a café not far from the clothing store Roronoa Zoro, Nico Robin, and Sanji were eating and talking until they heard a scream that sounded very much like Nami.

---------

A crowd had gathered around the shop where Nami's scream had come from. Sanji was ready to start kicking away everyone who stood between him and the currently-in-distress Nami. Zoro and Robin had to hold him back to keep him from going off on someone who didn't deserve it. They were able to push their way through the crowd and into the store. There was another crowd in there, gathered by a dressing room. There was definitely someone on the other side of the closed door. They could hear sobbing. 

"Excuse me." Robin said as she walked up to the shop's owner, "May I ask what is happening here?" 

"Dunno." the man said wearily, as though tired of explaining it over and over, "Some kid came into th' store and went into the dressing room. Few minutes later, she's screamin' and refusin' t'come out. Won't let anybody go in, either." 

"Was this person a young girl with orange hair?" Robin asked. The owner nodded. It was definitely Nami. But what had happened to cause her to behave like this? 

Before Robin could gather any more information, Luffy arrived. He had pushed his way into the store. Zoro saw him and asked what he was doing here. 

"I was playing with the kids at the orphanage when I got hungry. Saw a huge bunch of people and figured this was the lunch line." 

"It's not." Zoro told him, "Something's going on. Nami's riled up about something and she's holed herself up in the dressing room there." 

"What?" Luffy asked. He walked to the door, "Hey! Nami! Why're you hiding in a dressing room?" 

"L-L-Luffy..." Nami's voice called out from behind the door, "Is that you, Luffy?" 

"I'm here too, Miss Nami!" Sanji shouted out. 

Luffy walked over to open the door. No sooner did he begin to turn the knob when Nami suddenly cried out, "Don't come in!" 

Luffy stepped back. 

"What're you doing, Luffy?!" Sanji asked angrily, "Miss Nami could be in danger!!" 

"She said not to go in." he said. 

"So?!" 

"So, we shouldn't go in." 

"What're you doing?" Zoro suddenly asked. He wasn't talking to Luffy. He was looking at Robin. 

"Looking into the room." Robin answered. She had her arms folded over her chest and her eyes closed. A sign she was using her Devil Fruit powers. In the dressing room, an eye had appeared on the wall. It saw Nami huddled in a corner of the room. There was a look of pure terror on her face. But other than Nami herself there seemed nothing wrong with the room. There were about seven or eight different outfits and the shirt Nami had been wearing earlier that day scattered around the floor. Taking a closer look at Nami, Robin spotted something odd, but was unsure of its meaning. She opened her eyes and looked to Luffy, who was still arguing with Sanji about breaking into the room. 

"Excuse me, Captain." she said. Luffy broke away from his spat with the cook to see what Robin needed. 

"A question. Did our navigator ever have a different tattoo on her left shoulder?" 

"Um... I think so. Yeah." Luffy answered, unsure of why Robin was asking. 

"Did it resemble a swordfish?" 

"Yes! Yes it did!" Zoro suddenly answered. He had gotten a very good look at Nami's original tatto. The mark of Saw-Tooth Arlong, the pirate who essentially made Nami his slave for the latter half of her life. 

"Miss Nami had that tattoo." Sanji said, "But she had it... altered." 

He didn't feel it was his place to disclose more than that. To tell Robin that Nami had stabbed her own arm in a fit of hysteria to try and remove it. Or to reveal that her current tattoo was in place partly to hide the scars from that. 

"Why do you ask?" Zoro wanted to know, "And how do you know what the old one looked like?" 

"Because, Mr. Swordsman, it appears as though that marking has somehow reappeared on her body."


	3. Reversal

**_ONE PIECE  
SITTING ON THE WAVES_  
CHAPTER 3: REVERSAL**  
BY  
Sgamer82  


A man watched as the four pirates rented a coach to take their crewmate back to their ship.

"Damn!" he cursed. He had hoped to avoid detection of the navigator's situation until everything was set. He had known the girl had Arlong's mark on her. But had not been aware she had changed it. The times he had seen her while staking out the crew, she'd worn T-shirts that covered the shoulder.

"Tirsni!" he called. A young man hurried over.

"Yeah, boss?"

"Run ahead of that carriage and let her know what's happened."

"Right!"

The kid took off. Thanks to the navigator's incident, nobody paid him any mind. The plan had to be accelerated a bit before the pirates figured out too much. Their partner had best be ready.

----------

Luffy, Zoro, Sanji, and Robin rode with Nami in a horse-drawn carriage Robin had hired to get them back to the _Merry_. When Robin had made her announcement about the tattoo, the men had broken into the room despite Nami's protests. They checked her shoulder and found, just as Robin had said, that her tattoo had reverted back into the mark of Arlong.

Nami had not said a word since they left the shop. She had simply sat there, practically catatonic, ignoring everything going on around her and hugging herself tightly. She reacted to nothing, even Luffy's stretching out his face in an attempt to make her smile, until they reached the Chibi no Mi Nursery.

Usopp and the orphanage's caretaker, Leda, saw the cart and, seeing Nami's expression, immediately ran to it to see what was wrong. When Nami set eyes on them, she immediately moved her hands up to her shoulders. The others took the hint and simply told Usopp and Leda that there had been an accident while Nami was shopping. They would tell Usopp the rest in private.

Leda walked to where Nami was sitting and took her hand.

"I'm sure whatever it was couldn't have been that awful." she said.

Nami remained silent.

"Even if it was, things _will_ get better. I promise." Leda said. The sincere words seemed to perk Nami up a little. Usopp climbed into the carriage with the others. He could tell this was more serious than they were letting on and waved a good-bye to Leda and the children as the carriage pulled away.

----------

"Her tattoo did _what?_" Usopp asked in shock after he and Chopper had been filled in on the details. Robin had helped Nami to their room when they had returned to the _Going Merry_. She had slept the past hour. The rest of the crew was eating dinner in the lounge and discussing the situation.

"We saw it." Zoro told him, "It was Arlong's mark, no doubt."

"That's not all!" Chopper offered, "When I did her physical, the tattoo wasn't different. But when I checked her height measurements, she was smaller than the last time I did it."

"Come to think of it." Sanji said, "she did seem approximately one and a half centimeters smaller."

"My calculations had about four." Chopper replied.

"He wasn't referring to her height." Zoro explained, eyeing the cook with a disgusted expression which Sanji returned.

"Maybe she shrank in the wash." Luffy suggested between bites of food.

"How is that possible?!" Zoro, Usopp, and Sanji all asked him.

"It happens with clothes." Luffy answered, as if it were obvious.

Robin listened to the conversation, but said nothing. She had her own suspicions. But they were based on nothing more than rumor. She wanted to be more certain before she said anything. The conversation immediately halted when a thud was heard outside.

----------

_Damn!_ She thought as the table set up on the deck fell over. She was gonna be caught for sure now.

She had no idea what would happen to her, or what had happened to her, for that matter. But she wasn't necessarily eager to stay and find out.

The last thing she remembered was waking up in a room on a ship she hadn't been on before. It had been dark, but she had managed to find her way to the door. She looked around the boat. Sea to the south and what looked like a dock to the north. Past the docks was what seemed like a forest with a path cut through the middle. It was hard to tell as it was dark. She had planned to get off the boat and get her bearings before anyone could notice her, but then she went and knocked over the table.

Before she could get any further, a door opened and Luffy, Zoro, Usopp, Sanji, Chopper, and Robin came outside to find an adolescent girl with orange hair trying to sneak off the _Going Merry_. Recognition hit them almost instantly.

"Nami?" Luffy asked. 


	4. At Thirteen

**_ONE PIECE  
SITTING ON THE WAVES_  
CHAPTER 4: AT THIRTEEN**  
BY  
Sgamer82  


The Straw Hat pirates had been in Redisca for just shy of a week. In that time, their navigator's pinwheel-tangerine tattoo had morphed itself back into her old Arlong tattoo. Furthermore, she had gradually shrunk several centimeters and, in the last few short hours, she had transformed into a girl barely into puberty. The Straw Hats were sure of only one ting right now.

At age thirteen, Nami was a real smartass.

"Lemme go you stretching freak!" she screamed as Luffy carried her inside, "I swear I'll kick you where it _really_ hurts if you don't!"

Nami was kicking and hitting at Luffy the entire time he carried her under his arm. When he finally set her down, she immediately retreated to a corner of the room and started yelling various obscenities at them. The crew just sat back down and continued their half-eaten dinner.

"So what're you gonna do now?" the young Nami shouted defiantly, "Gonna make me a 'cabin girl?' Sell me somewhere..." she realized the others were just eating their dinner, "Hey! Don't ignore me!"

They did.

With a huff, Nami sat in the corner, a ticked off look on her face. The crew had found her trying to sneak off the ship. If the man in the hat hadn't shot his arm out to grab her she might've managed it, too. She didn't know what was going on or why she was on this bizarre pirate ship.

Her thoughts were interrupted by a man wearing a black suit. She couldn't see his left eye behind his blonde hair. Nami didn't like that. She didn't trust anybody she couldn't look in both eyes. He held out a plate of food.

"I prepared you a plate. Why not come join us?"

"Yeah!" said the man in the straw hat between mouthfuls, "It's good stuff!"

Nami, despite her hunger and the delicious looking food, slapped the plate out of the chef's hand and sent it crashing to the floor.

Sanji tried to keep his temper in check. Anyone else, and Sanji would have completely blown his stack. Only the facts that he was dealing a child, and also Nami, were keeping him from doing so. But he was in no mood to keep trying. His usual kiss-up attitude was absent with Nami in her small body. He simply sat back down and waited for Luffy to pick up the food and eat it himself; which he did so rather quickly.

The meal ended fast, and the crew went into quiet discussion about what was going on with Nami. They had estimated her age at about twelve or thirteen. Nami remained sitting in the corner trying to listen in, but finding it difficult with their voices being kept so low.

Luffy, not a big fan of quiet talking, stepped out of the conversation and kneeled down next to Nami. The rest of the crew stopped their conversation and watched, curious to see if Luffy would have any better luck with Nami than Sanji had.

"Hey," he said, as if trying to share a secret. Nami looked up at him, her expression angry as it had been since she had entered the room. The crew continued to watch as Luffy held out his hand.

"Pull my finger!"

The crew stifled a groan. Nami slapped Luffy's hand away, blushing a little.

"Don't be stupid! I know how that joke works!"

"You do? That's good." Luffy laughed as he pulled the finger himself and stretched it out, "That means you must still remember a little bit."

Nami just stared at Luffy's hand as he laughed at his own stunt.

_How is he stretching like that?_ she wondered _What am I supposed to be remembering?_

"What are you talking about? You're supposed to do something else with that joke!"

"I am?" Luffy asked, completely oblivious to Nami's attitude, "How's it supposed to go?"

"Well... um..." her anger was starting to fade with the slight embarrassment of having to explain this to an adult, "So, um... how 'bout that dinner?"

"Sounds good! Hey, Sanji, three plates!"

"Why three?"

"Well, I'm hungry, too."

"That doesn't explain why you need three helpings."

"I just said! I'm hungry! Two!" he held up two of his fingers.

"Luffy, I'll make one plate for you and one for Miss Nami and that is it."

Nami blushed a bit more. She couldn't remember anyone calling her "Miss" like that. Before she could do anything else, the guy the cook called Luffy grabbed her hand and pulled her off the floor. She sat at the table and, this time, was unable to resist her appetite. Neither was Luffy, who had already eaten more than most people and still seemed to have room.

Distracted by the tasty food and ravenous hunger, she didn't notice the rest of the crew was watching her. They were wondering just what had happened to make her so young so suddenly. And why she seemed to have no recollection of any of them.

----------

Later that evening, the crew had turned in for the night. Nami wasn't tired yet, having slept for quite a while just recently. So she wandered the ship. She considered running again, but knew this time the pirates were ready and would be on the lookout for her to do just that. So instead she eventually joined the older woman in her quarters, a different room than the one the men were sleeping in. The woman, who had introduced herself as Robin, displayed her abilities to Nami soon after she entered. An arm appeared out of the table and struck a match, using it to light a lantern. Nami was amazed. She had heard of the Fruits of the Devil, but never believed in them. Robin told her that the captain and the reindeer were also eaters of the Devil Fruit.

As Robin went behind a screen to change for bed, Nami explored the room. She found a large collection of books, including what looked like a traveler's log. She read a journal of this ship's journey written in what looked a lot like her own handwriting. Only more refined.

"Hang on," Nami said as she read, "The date in this book. It's five years off."

Robin, stepping out from behind the screen in a set of pajamas, looked at Nami.

"Oh? What year is it?"

Nami answered, and Robin looked at her oddly for a moment. As if considering something. Nami didn't realize that her answer was incorrect. The number she had given Robin was five years ago. Robin knew now. Her suspicions were confirmed.

"Pardon me." Robin said a she excused herself and left Nami alone in the room. Nami didn't know what was going on, but her suspicions were starting up again. She explored the room, searching for anything hidden or valuable, until she stumbled on a framed photograph hidden in a desk drawer. She picked it up and looked, and couldn't believe what she saw.

_This picture! It's... it's..._ It was a picture of Nami with her sister and mother from back when she was ten.

_Not just that! This picture is the picture at our_ house Nami didn't understand. How did this photo get here? Had those pirates been to Cocoyashi? She started to worry. She continued exploring the room and found a box containing several wallets and purses. Many of which she recognized as belonging to citizens of Cocoyashi Village. Who were these pirates? What had they done in Cocoyashi? Why had she allowed herself to get sucked in by their kind demeanor?

_God, I'm an idiot!_

She had to get out of there right now. 


	5. A Tale of the Grand Line

**_ONE PIECE  
SITTING ON THE WAVES_  
CHAPTER 5: A TALE OF THE GRAND LINE**  
BY  
Sgamer82

Upon leaving Nami, Robin had immediately called a meeting of the crew. More accurately, she had used her powers to shake everyone out of bed and then point them to the lounge, where they found her waiting.

"I apologize for the rude awakening. But I believe I may know what is happening to our navigator."

Whatever anger the crewmen had about Robin's wake-up call suddenly vanished as they sat down at the dinner table. Robin cleared her throat and began to explain.

"I believe that somewhere on this island is somebody who possesses the power of a Fruit of the Devil. This particular Devil Fruit power, if I am correct, allows its user to change the age of a given person. Making them, in both mind and body, whatever age the user wishes."

"What makes you so sure of this?" Zoro asked skeptically.

"There is an old story of a woman on the Grand Line who possessed such a power. Given that Redisca is also known as 'the town of second chances,' I believe this fruit is what we are dealing with."

"So, what our darling Robin here is saying," Sanji said, "Is that you believe that someone with powers like the woman in this story is the one doing this to Miss Nami?"

Robin nodded, "This Devil Fruit is the _only_ thing I have ever heard of which can have this kind of effect."

"Then why didn't you say so when this started happening?" Zoro asked.

"Because I was not sure, Mr. Swordsman." Robin answered, "I do not like to give a theory without being sure I have evidence to back it up. While there have been clues hinting to this possibility, only something our little navigator just said to me made me believe I am correct."

The crew listened.

"In our navigator's mind, she believes it is currently five years ago. She hasn't just become a child in body, her mind has been taken back to that time of her life as well. Just as the powers of the Devil Fruit are described as being capabl-"

Robin cut off suddenly.

"Outside! Now!" she yelled as she ran out the door. The others followed and, outside, saw Nami making a break for it again. She had managed to jump off the ship onto the dock and was making a beeline for the forest just past the harbor. Luffy shot out his hand to try to catch her, like he had done earlier, but this time Nami was bobbing and weaving as she ran and was able to dodge Luffy. Robin made an attempt as well, calling one her own powers to create hands to catch Nami. One of them caught hold of Nami and Robin managed to get a few more arms onto her before Nami suddenly bit down on a hands as hard as she could, causing Robin to let go in surprise.

Nami ran into the woods. As Luffy's hand came back to him, Robin held her own hand, which had started bleeding.

----------

Nami ran as fast as she could manage. Robin had tried to hide it, but she had put an eye inside the bedroom and was watching her, making sure Nami didn't escape. But Nami saw her chance to do just that when the woman apparently called a meeting of the crew (she had heard several voices complaining about being woken up). She made her plan then and there.

When she was ready, she threw a blanket over Robin's eye and bolted out the door, making it to the dock before anybody had a chance to stop her. The captain had tried to catch her like before, but this time she had been able to dodge. Biting Robin had really just been reflex. But it had worked, so Nami wasn't about to complain.

She was running a risk heading deep into this forest. No telling what animals were in there. But it was her best shot at escaping those pirates. She wasn't worried about getting lost. She could navigate on land every bit as well as she could on the sea. She had gotten some distance into the woods when all of a sudden everything went black.

----------

The girl had attempted escape, just as expected. Her hatred for pirates at this age was absolute. She didn't trust them. She wouldn't. Because of that, she had fallen right into his grasp. After knocking her out, he carried the young navigator over his shoulder until he reached the northern edge of the forest, where his crew was waiting.

"She's comin' now. You got the kid, boss?" the boy called Tirsni asked.

"Of course." he said as he took Nami off his shoulder and held her in his arms. He almost resembled a hero rescuing a damsel in distress.

"You got her." said his partner as she arrived, "Wonderful. I was worried you wouldn't be able to get her from the pirates."

"She did that all on her own. I found her out in the forest, out cold." he told her as he handed the girl over.

While easy for the man to carry, the woman had more difficulty holding her. But she fixed that easily enough. She brushed the girl's cheek with her hand and whispered softly.

"_Quinquennis._"

The man and his subordinates watched as the thirteen year-old girl suddenly began to get even smaller. She shrank in the woman's arms until she was no bigger than a five year-old. She was now very easy for the woman to hold.

"What of the pirates?" she asked.

"We'll take care of that." the man told her, "The Government wants 'Straw Hat' Luffy for public execution. They'll be especially happy to get the whole crew."

She didn't appear satisfied.

"You needn't worry." he said, "You won't likely have any trouble from them. I doubt they'll either notice or even care if one person's missing. So long as there's no price on her head."

"Very well." she said, "Good luck to you then, Huncaza."

The woman left, heading to her home. The little girl in her arms stirred, but she cooed the child quiet.

"It'll all be okay, very soon." she told Nami, "Soon all the pain you've experienced in your life will be nothing but a bad dream. Things will be better. I promise."

With that, Leda took the child up the path to the Chibi no Mi Nursery.

----------

It is an old tale of the Grand Line.

Long ago, a young girl unknowingly, as so many do, came across and ate of the Fruit of the Devil. This fruit, the Era-Era Fruit, enabled the girl to change her body's physical age to whatever she wished. At first, the girl used this new power to play pranks. She would change her own age to play with the minds of those who knew her. That eventually grew old, and the girl wondered about what other use her powers could be put to.

It was soon after that the girl had discovered a young man, who as a child had seen his family slaughtered in front of him by pirates. The events he witnessed had left him traumatized ever since. The girl felt grief at what had happened to the man. He would forever remember the pain and sorrow of those events. Nothing could be done about it. That was when the girl realized she could do something about it.

Using the power of the Era-Era Fruit, she regressed the boy back to infancy. Back to age far below that at which he had experienced the horror of his loved ones' deaths. Memory of the boy's prior life, over time, faded completely and he grew up happy and healthy after being adopted by a kind family.

The girl then decided that such deeds were her calling. The story goes on that she created an orphanage and, while also taking in normal children, would also accept people who came to her seeking a new lease on life. Men and women who had contracted deadly illness, or had experienced pain they truly wished to forget. Even criminals on the run would receive a second chance by her hand.

With a mere touch, she could undo years of regretful decisions, bad fortune, and painful memories. 


	6. Traps

**_ONE PIECE  
SITTING ON THE WAVES_  
CHAPTER 6: TRAPS**  
BY  
Sgamer82

A few setbacks aside, everything was going as planned. Huncaza was set up to take the Straw Hat pirates' bounties. All that remained was for them to stumble into his trap.

There had been several reasons for targeting the navigator. Most obvious was the fact that without a capable navigator, "Straw Hat" Luffy's ship wouldn't be going anywhere. Secondly, Leda had told him she had never reversed her regressions except on herself. So there was no way of knowing if she could do so if she used her powers on Monkey, Roronoa, or Nico. If she couldn't, that was two hundred thirty-nine million Berries right out the window. The girl had no price and was, therefore, expendable. Finally, she was the one member of the crew he could most easily convince Leda of changing.

He looked to his crew. About a dozen, strong and talented each of tem. He nodded, and most of them went towards the forest to get ready. The Straw Hat crew would begin searching the forest for Nami soon. They needed to be ready.

----------

The forest between the Chibi no Mi Nursery and the docks divided into two parts. One half of forest to the east, one half to the west, and split down the middle by a man-made path that led to the village. Robin and Chopper searched the west side. Usopp thought he had seen Nami come through here so Chopper, with his sense of smell, was attempting to track her down by scent. Should they locate Nami, it would be Robin's job to catch her.

Usopp and Sanji looked through the forest's east side. This was in case Nami tried to switch sides while hiding to throw off pursuers. Zoro and Luffy were keeping to the path in case she turned up there and because nobody wanted to go searching for them and Nami if they got lost in the woods. The crew had searched all night. The sun was rising and nobody had yet had any luck.

"Nami!" Luffy called out from the path.

"You know," Zoro began, "She's trying to run away from us. Should we really be letting her know where not to go?"

"You're right." Luffy replied, "Nami! We're not here! You can come over!"

Zoro gave Luffy a knock to the head. Even if she was a dumb brat right now, she wasn't that dumb. Zoro kept his own eyes open. No sign of Nami was showing up around the bushes. However, Zoro had begun to get a strange feeling he and Luffy were being followed.

The gunshot confirmed his suspicions.

----------

"How is it coming, Doctor?"

"It's strange." Chopper answered, "I had her scent a while ago but now it's getting all mixed in with something else."

"Wildlife?" Robin inquired.

"No. The scent is definitely human."

Robin didn't like the sound of that. It could be the person with the Era-Era power. Or someone working for her. Robin took a careful look at her surroundings. After ascertaining where everything was, she closed her eyes and crossed her arms over her chest.

"_Ojos Fleur_."

On the many trees of the forest several eyes began to appear. Robin was beginning to think they had been maneuvered here. She needed to make sure.

"Is something wrong, Robin?" Chopper asked apprehensively.

"Maybe not. But I'm beginning to susp-"

Robin's sentence suddenly cut off with a scream as she brought her hand up to her right eye and fell to her knees.

"Robin!"

"Doctor! Go. Now! You have to warn the others! It's a trap."

"No! You're hurt!"

"I've had worse. You can take care of me after. Go now!"

Reluctantly, Chopper transformed to his fully-animal shape and galloped off to warn the other Straw Hat pirates of the danger.

Meanwhile, Nico Robin stood, and prepared for battle.

----------

Sanji and Usopp were searching, also. There wasn't too high a chance of finding Nami here. But it would be plain stupid not to cover every possibility.

"Hey, Sanji." Usopp said. He couldn't stand the dark, quiet forest and was eager to keep some noise going. Fortunately daybreak was coming so it wasn't so bad. But even so...

"Yeah?" Sanji answered. He was getting annoyed with all of Usopp's idle chatter.

"Have you given any thought to just who it was that made Nami younger?"

Robin had told them all the story as they came to the forest. There had been some speculation but nothing definite. They didn't know anyone in this town so it was difficult to know if anyone there could be the person who caused this.

"A bit." Sanji replied, "Do you have an idea?"

"Well, do we know if this Era-Era fruit requires the person to be close to the target?"

"No. What's your point?"

"Well, if it needs proximity, or even actual contact, then that would narrow down our search for whoever it is."

Sanji grunted an affirmative. Usopp was right. In fact... now that he came to think of it...

"Of course!" Sanji yelled, "It was so obvious!"

"What?!" Usopp asked, startled by Sanji's sudden shout.

"That lady at the orphanage! When we first came to town, she and Miss Nami shook hands!"

"She did?" Usopp asked as understanding dawned, "Didn't she hold Nami's hand yesterday, too?!"

"Right when the changes started getting worse!"

Sanji and Usopp had it. They were sure of it.

"We gotta go!" Usopp suggested, "Hunting the forest might not actually do any good. If Leda's behind this then she may have Nami with her!"

"That won't be an option, I'm sorry to say."

The pair looked to the source of the voice and saw a slender man dressed in a black shirt and green pants. He seemed somewhat out of place for the great outdoors. Behind him, however, were a group of about seven or eight burly men who looked every bit as wild as any animal in the wood.

"Usopp! Go and tell the others what we know. I'll keep them off you."

Usopp didn't hesitate to run for the path. Sanji noted, as Usopp left, none of the big men made a move to chase him. Nor did the slender man make a move.

"This was just what you wanted, wasn't it?"

"Good guess." the man said. Sanji noticed his voice was a bit higher than most. But didn't swell on it as the large men attacked. 


	7. Forked Paths

**_ONE PIECE  
SITTING ON THE WAVES_  
CHAPTER 7: FORKED PATHS**  
BY  
Sgamer82

Meanwhile, in an orphanage halfway between Redisca village and Redisca harbor, a five year-old girl awoke completely unaware of the danger that had begun outside.

It was a private room in the Chibi no Mi Nursery. There was no bump on her head from being knocked out by Huncaza. Technically, that injury hadn't happened to her yet. There was no tattoo on her left shoulder, nor should there be. However, there was a scared little girl who had no clue where she was.

Leda walked in just as Nami was starting to cry. She calmed the child down easily enough. This was something she encountered often in her work.

"It's okay, little one." she said soothingly, "You're safe."

"Where am I?" Nami asked.

"This is the Chibi no Mi Nursery." Leda answered.

"Nursery?" Nami suddenly huffed, "I'm not a baby!"

Leda couldn't help laughing. No matter how many times children did that it was the most adorable thing to Leda. It was the reason she kept the word "nursery" in the orphanage's name.

"Of course you're not." Leda said, "This place is an orphanage. There are lots of children here. Many are even older than you."

"But... I'm not an orphan." Nami said.

"No, but you were lost." Leda explained, "You were found asleep in the forest just outside."

Nami was confused. Why wasn't she in Cocoyashi village? Where was her big sister, Nojiko? Where was her mama, Belle-mère?

"You needn't worry, Nami. I'll make sure you get home soon as I can. For now, I'd like you to enjoy yourself here. All right?"

Nami thought about it. This lady seemed nice enough. Besides, there wasn't much else she could do. She held out her hand.

"Okay." she said.

"Wonderful!" Leda said with a smile. She introduced herself to Nami, took her hand, and led her out to another room in the building.

The orphanage consisted of a small number of rooms. One was Leda's personal bedroom. Another couple had bunks for the children living there. There were also two bathrooms and a kitchen, as well as the room Nami had just come into.

The large main room had small tables set up on one side where about two dozen kids or so, both older and younger than five year-old Nami, were eating breakfast. Some of the older kids, in their early or mid teens, seemed to be helping out with the smaller children. Helping to feed the ones too small to do it themselves without a huge mess. Nami was led to a seat between two girls about her age. She was very hungry and dug right into the meal. Afterwards, she got to enjoy drawing with some paper and wax crayons Leda had brought out for the children to play with. After some initial difficulty in thinking of what to draw, Nami got an idea. A few squares here... a circle there...

"My goodness, what have you got there, Nami?" Leda asked cheerfully. She had seen Nami very focused and come to see what she was drawing. Nami held up her masterpiece.

"It's a map!" she announced.

Leda was simply amazed. She had been watching Nami carefully and had seen the girl look up from the table only two or three times. But the drawing her hand was near-perfect. Were it not in crayon, it would look almost like a real map. From the locations of the doors, the tables and toy boxes. Leda even saw what looked suspiciously like a compass rose in the corner.

"I can't wait 'til I get home!" Nami said excitedly, "I'm gonna show it t' my mama Belle-mère an' my big sister!"

"Your sister?" Leda asked, "I didn't know you had a sister."

"Yep! Her name's Nojiko. She's three years older 'n me. Sometimes she picks on me but usually she's real nice."

Leda listened to Nami talk about her sister. She wasn't sure what to think. Huncaza hadn't told her anything of a sister. She was told the girl's adopted mother had been Nami's sole family until the woman had been killed. It and the story that followed had been why she was willing to use her Era-Era powers on the girl without her knowledge.

Huncaza had told Leda that Nami had been abandoned by the people of her own village at the age of ten after being forced into servitude under the pirate "Saw-Tooth" Arlong. When Monkey D. Luffy defeated Arlong, Huncaza had said, he had demanded Nami as the payment for his services. Trapped in such a life, Leda couldn't stand by and allow the girl to suffer.

But... if Huncaza had lied about her family, what else was a lie?

----------

Zoro was bleeding from his right arm. Fortunately the bullet just grazed him so the wound wasn't serious. What was serious was how the wound had been inflicted. The gunshot had come from behind them, hit Luffy, then grazed Zoro after Luffy's rubber body made it rebound. At first, Zoro believed it was nothing more than a lucky hit. But then two more shots rang out, again hitting Luffy before bouncing towards Zoro. He barely dodged them. Zoro was worried. Was whoever was shooting at them intentionally ricocheting bullets off Luffy?

"Zoro! Where'd those come from?!" Luffy asked. Bullets couldn't harm Luffy, but all the same he disliked getting shot.

"I don't know." replied Zoro as he pulled out his three swords and readied for battle, "The only thing I'm sure of is it was from behind us."

A noise sounded on the path. Another bullet hit Luffy in the chest. Zoro wasn't able to dodge the bounce off Luffy's body and took a hit in the side.

"Hya hya hya! What do you think of my marksmanship, Mr. Roronoa?"

"Your aim sucks!" Luffy yelled, "Bullets can't even hurt me!"

"But they can hurt your mate."

That cinched it. Whoever this person was, he was aiming every shot.

"Where are you? Show yourself!" Zoro demanded.

"You don't honestly expect me to reveal myself?" said the voice. It sounded like a young man's.

"Fine then, what do you want?" Zoro asked.

"Your head."

A bounty hunter.

"Before that, however, I also wish to see which if our weapons is superior, Mr. Roronoa. So many people wield swords these days. Even though firearms are getting more and more powerful. 'Why hold on to old relics?' I ask myself. Is there something about them I just don't see? Why don't we have at it, Mr. Roronoa, and learn whether sword or gun is truly superior. What do you say?"

"Luffy?" Luffy gave Zoro a nod, "Fine then, I accept your challenge."

"Luffy!" another voice called. Usopp jumped out of the forest's west side.

"Luffy! We think we know who changed Nami into a kid!"

"What?" Luffy and Zoro asked together.

"We think it's Leda. The lady from the orphanage. But there's more! It's all a trap! Sanji's fighting as we speak!"

Usopp was interrupted by a shot which hit Luffy and struck the ground by Usopp's foot. Usopp jumped back about three feet.

"We already knew that last part." Luffy told Usopp. Someone else came out of the east end of the forest. Zoro stood ready to attack, but eased off when he saw it was Chopper.

"Let me guess." Usopp said upon seeing Chopper, "It's a trap and Robin's fighting?"

"Wow!" Chopper exclaimed, "That's amazing! How did you know without my saying a word?"

"A great man like me always knows when danger's afoot!"

"Oooh!"

"Save it!" Zoro called out, "The others need help. We have to finish up here before we -- Luffy! Wait!"

Luffy wasn't listening. He was already running down the path to the Chibi no Mi. To Nami.

"Luffy!" Usopp called, "We gotta go! Sanji's bein attacked by a bunch of huge guys!"

"Robin's already been hurt!" Chopper yelled.

"We gotta get to Nami!" Luffy shouted as he ran.

"He's right." Zoro said to the others, "Robin and the cook are capable of taking care of themselves, even if they're hurt or outnumbered. But we have no idea where Nami is or what she's doing."

"But we can't just leave the others!" Chopper said.

"Then we don't." Zoro told him, "You go after the cook. If he's outnumbered, you'll be the most help there."

"But Robin..."

"I'll go after Robin." Usopp told her, "I'll rescue her and we'll go after Luffy when we're done. Go and help Sanji!"

Chopper nodded an affirmative. He could count on Usopp.

"I'll stay here." Zoro said, "The sharpshooter challenged me, alone. So don't worry about me."

Chopper went west as Usopp headed east. Luffy ran north, towards the orphanage. Zoro turned to the south, the general direction his adversary's gunshots had come from. 


	8. Luffy VS Huncaza

**_ONE PIECE  
SITTING ON THE WAVES_  
CHAPTER 8: LUFFY VS HUNCAZA**  
BY  
Sgamer82

Up north, Huncaza listened as the sound of Tirsni's gunshots carried up the path. He turned to the orphanage, where the sounds of children playing was surely drowning out the noise from so far away.

The shooting was the signal. "Straw Hat" Luffy would be here anytime now. If they didn't figure it out themselves, Tirsni would reveal the navigator was here and Straw Hat wouldn't hesitate to run to her rescue. He took a small pellet out of his pocket and casually made his way to a window of the orphanage. With a flick of his thumb, the pellet went into the building.

_This will slow our little Monkey down a bit._

----------

Sanji was able to make short work of the men sent against him. When the first ran to attack him, Sanji did a back-flip, sending his foot right into his foe's jaw. As the man fell to the ground some of his cronies leapt into the fray. Sanji remained on his hands and spun himself in place, sending them all flying with a propeller kick. He then pushed himself upwards into the air, flying over the head of an attacker who had hoped to catch Sanji off-guard after the attack. Sanji delivered a side kick to the back of his head, sending the large man to the ground with a heavy thud. Finally, he landed on his left leg, and used his right for a roundhouse kick aimed at the jaw of the last of his enemies. Sanji took a drag off his cigarette as his last foe lost consciousness.

"Well." said the slender young man leading of the group, "It's a rather lucky thing these were mostly hired grunts. No big loss, really." he laughed, "I'm serious. The boss won't even lose any money. Not one was bright enough to ask for pay in advance."

"What does that matter?!" Sanji asked angrily, "All I see is a little bastard standing between me and the rescue of a lady. So I hope you don't mind if I want to finish this quick."

"Not at all, Cookie." the man answered. Sanji could feel the vein in his forehead pop at "Cookie." This guy was seriously pissing him off.

"You do realize, of course, you won't be leaving here without going through me?"

"I have no problem with that." Sanji replied.

"Good, but would you please excuse me a moment while I make myself a little more comfortable."

He didn't wait for Sanji's answer. He unbuttoned his black shirt. Sanji saw underneath the shirt were bandages wrapped around his torso. Not too uncommon for martial artists. The man began tugging at the bandages and undoing them. Sanji's attention was immediately caught by something, or rather, _two_ somethings that were under the wrappings.

"There." he, or rather, _she_ said as she buttoned her shirt back up, "Much better."

She assumed a fighting pose and looked right at Sanji.

"Shall we begin, then?"

Sanji could only think to himself, _Oh crap..._

----------

Nami was playing hide and seek with some of the kids when she suddenly saw a little black marble come in through the window. She crawled out of her hiding place under a table, heedless of the fact that she could be tagged 'it' at any moment, to examine the object. She was reaching her hand out when it suddenly began shooting out a lot of smoke. Nami coughed badly as she heard cries of alarm and surprise throughout the nursery. She heard Leda call out to the kids to go outside to the front yard. Nami was spotted by a bigger kid and helped outside through all the smoke.

"Eew! It's all sticky out here!" Someone whined.

Indeed it was. As Nami ran outside she suddenly felt something very sticky on her feet. It was hard to walk. Soon, it was impossible. The sticky stuff suddenly became very hard, leaving Nami unable to move her feet. As the smoke began to clear, Nami saw the ground in front of the orphanage was covered in some strange green stuff that was definitely not grass. Despite it being sticky and gooey at first, it was now solid as a rock. Leda, Nami, and every child of the Chibi no Mi all had their feet trapped inside, rendering them unable to move.

Nami suddenly heard a laughing that scared her. It sounded mean. A man was standing some distance away, well out of reach of the strange green sticky rock. He was clothed mostly in animal skins, much as would be expected of a primitive hunter. He even had a headdress with some kind of animal's horns on it. The only thing that hurt the primitive image was the gun holstered at his hip.

"Huncaza!" Leda shouted angrily, "What are you doing?!"

"Making money." he replied simply, "Monkey D. Luffy should be arriving any moment, if all went as planned. I need to make sure all is ready for him."

"Hostages." Leda said.

"More or less."

Nami was very scared now. She didn't completely understand what was going on. But she knew what a "hostage" was. She saw a lot of the children, even big kids, were scared just like her.

"Naaaaamiiiii!!!" a man's voice suddenly screamed out.

A lanky man wearing a straw hat was suddenly at the south end of the path. He was breathing hard, as though running non-stop for some time. Huncaza merely laughed again.

"Welcome, Captain Monkey." he said. He walked on the now hard green rock and into the middle of the group of children, "It's good to finally meet you face to face."

"Who're you?! Where's Nami?!"

Huncaza scanned the crowd and, after spotting Nami, walked to and stood behind her. He placed a somewhat fat hand on her shoulder.

"Your little navigator is right here. If you don't want anything happening to her, it might be in your best interest to surrender peacefully."

Luffy wasn't listening to Huncaza anymore. The instant he saw Nami, his attention focused on her. He saw her, a five year-old girl, scared to the point of tears of a situation she didn't understand. What was happening? How did these people know her name? Who was the straw hat guy? Nami's and Luffy's eyes locked for a moment. In that instant, she couldn't explain why, but Nami knew she could trust him to rescue her.

"Mr. Straw Hat Guy!" Nami cried, "Help me!"

Huncaza never saw the stretched-out punch coming. As he fell to the ground, Luffy's hand began to snap back towards the rest of Luffy's body.

"Nami! Grab my hand!"

Nami did so as soon as she she saw it come within her sight. She felt a strong pull as she grabbed but managed to hold on. The hand was still trying to get back to Luffy. Nami then saw Luffy leap straight up into the air higher than she'd ever seen anyone jump. He began to be pulled in the direction of herself and the other kids.

"Let go!"

Nami obeyed and watched as Luffy's hand retreated back to him. The force of the snap-back turned Luffy around in mid-air, resulting in him facing Nami when he landed, despite landing behind her. Nami couldn't turn around with her feet stuck, so she simply looked up at the face of the strange man who'd just hit the other strange man who was threatening her. Luffy just looked down and smiled a big toothy grin at her. Nami felt her fear just leave her at the sight of this guy who simply wasn't scared at all.

"Keep an eye on this for me." Luffy said, as he took off his straw hat and put it on Nami's head. It was far too big for her little head, but she held onto it nonetheless. Luffy turned to Huncaza, who had backed away a bit when Luffy had jumped in. He was standing between two other kids as he leveled his pistol at Luffy.

"Heh." Luffy laughed, "That won't work on me."

"Heh." Huncaza laughed, "You're right. They'll just bounce right off, won't they?"

"That's right. They'll bounce right off and..." that was when it hit Luffy. If those bullets were deflected by his body, they could easily wind up hitting one of the nearly two dozen children he was standing in the middle of.

"Coward!" Luffy growled.

"Yes." Huncaza said, "But soon I'll be a rich coward. With you and your crewmates I'll net a good two hundred thirty-nine million Berries."

"The guy shooting in the forest is your partner?"

"Right. Now, let's keep this simple. I want your word, here and now, that you will surrender quietly. Unless..." Huncaza finished his sentence by putting his pistol to the head of a boy next to him.

"Hey! You'd better keep that thing pointed at me!"

"Oh..." Huncaza said, then did exactly that as he saw Luffy charging him.

"Fine! Be that way!" he yelled as he fired all six of the pistol's chamber at Luffy. Luffy took the first five without stopping. As the sixth bullet came at him, Luffy put up no resistance to its force. He took the bullet and let the power of the impact bend him over backwards. The six bullets inside him suddenly shot out and flew straight up into the sky. The went up at angles that would ensure, when they came down, they'd land nowhere near the kids.

Luffy stood straight up after the bullets had gone and resumed his charge. This time stretching his hand behind him as he did so.

"Gomu-Gomu..."

Luffy's fist came shooting back toward his body. Luffy stopped running just short of meeting Huncaza and let his fist, carrying the momentum from coming back to him, land right into Huncaza's belly.

"...BULLET!!!"

As Huncaza started to fall, Luffy grabbed his arm and yanked the gun from Huncaza's hand. Luffy then threw it to the ground and stomped hard on it, destroying the weapon. Huncaza recovered from the attack before falling completely and moved around one of the smaller children behind him to put some distance between himself and Luffy. He was getting frustrated. This wasn't going as he had expected. He'd researched Luffy thoroughly before he had launched his plan.

Everything from "Axe-Hand" Morgan to the rumors he had bested Sir Crocodile of the Seven Warlords of the Sea. His research had suggested that Luffy wasn't the type to let people he liked get hurt easily. The same could be said of innocent bystanders. Right now both were present and Luffy was attacking as he normally would.

Fortunately, Huncaza had also realized that Luffy was unpredictable. That he might do exactly as he was doing now. He opened a pouch at his side and removed a set of what looked like brass knuckles with spikes on them. In truth, they weren't spikes, but in fact the teeth of one of the most powerful sharks from West Blue. Capable of tearing through stone and even iron. Close combat was something Huncaza was adept at. And in this confined space, "Straw Hat" Luffy was unable to use his full strength. He couldn't stretch as much has he may normally would without risking injury to a child.

"I'll have to take you by force then, eh, Captain Monkey?"

"No you won't. We'll beat you before you can do that."

"Who's we?" 


	9. Rhinestone Cowboy

**_ONE PIECE  
SITTING ON THE WAVES_  
CHAPTER 9: RHINESTONE COWBOY**  
BY  
Sgamer82

When Nico Robin spotted the burly man sitting behind a tree, he had been momentarily surprised. He reacted quickly however, reaching into a bag at his side and throwing some kind of liquid into the eye Robin projected. Whether it was on a tree or not, Robin's eye was still Robin's eye. She'd felt a strong burning in that eye since. She didn't know it herself, but it was horribly bloodshot.

If he had something that could do that, Robin didn't dare use her eyes like that again. Best to wait. Wait for her foe to make his own move. She didn't wait long.

"Well, now, it seems like the game has begun, eh Ms. Nico?"

Robin didn't answer.

"Perhaps I should introduce myself. My name is Coverque."

With that he stepped out. He wasn't a large man. He wasn't necessarily fat, but was noticeably bulky. It was obvious even though he wore a long overcoat studded from collar to hem with little rhinestones. The coat was rounded down the middle, showing a chubby body. He also seemed to move slowly.

"You obviously know me already." Robin said, "Putting aside that you called me by name. You weren't so surprised by my _Ojos Fleur_ that you couldn't act. Your weight, if I am correct, may also be a factor in making you my opponent."

Robin's physical strength never changed with the use of her powers. No matter how many arms she produced, each arm was just as strong as Robin's real ones.

"That will do you little good. _Cinco Fleur_!"

With the command five arms appeared. Two from the ground, three on the body of her adversary. They bent his arms backwards, wrapped around his legs, and pulled his head back. Something in his hand caught Robin's attention. It was a lighter. Though his hand was bent far behind him, he managed to light it and throw it to his left. Before Robin could react she was suddenly hit with a blinding flash. It caused her to lose her focus, causing her arms to vanish and release Coverque's body. It wasn't hard to figure out he had moved somewhere else while she was recovering.

"Nice try, Ms. Nico." Coverque said, "But thanks to my Phosphor Streamers you won't be able to do much."

Robin looked around her and saw, through her squinted left eye, bright white pouches strung up from the trees through the forest. She wondered how she had missed them. But then, she and Chopper had been following his nose, and were concentrating on the ground, when searching for Nami.

"Even if you weren't half-blind these would do you in." Coverque boasted, "The material inside the pouches is what is flashing. I got them by extracting the phosphorous fluids from inside creatures that live so deep under the sea their bodies have to create their own light to see. I'm a master chemist, y'see. With those extracts, I was able to create a formula several times brighter. All it needs to ignite is a little flame. Worse yet, one of your powers' limitations, unless I am mistaken; unless you're familiar with what's around you, visual contact is a necessity in creating your limbs."

He wasn't mistaken. In unfamiliar territory, Robin needed to see what she was doing to use her powers most effectively. She hadn't been in this forest long enough to be able to create parts without looking. It was very clear that this man knew her and her abilities very well. They had done research for this. Which meant only one thing. Pirate hunters.

What other surprises did this person have in store? What other surprises could Robin come up with? Trapped in an unfamiliar place with a foe who had familiarized himself with her powers. She had to think clearly. She didn't know where Coverque was. With his Phosphor Streamers creating blinding light around the area, she couldn't find him with her one uninjured eye.

_But I possess other senses besides sight._ Robin thought to herself. The problem came in how to use them effectively. She'd had but moments to memorize to train before Coverque had lit up the place. Unfortunately, she hadn't gotten much out of that since she had still been reeling from the initial attack on her eye. She needed to learn what was around her.

"_Trescientos Fleur_!!" Robin called out as an idea occurred to her. It was risky, but provided a chance to end this quickly. At Robin's words, hands began sprouting out from the ground around her.

"Search!"

The arms sprouted outwards from Robin. A few immediately around her. Then some around the first set. Then more around the second set, and so on. The arms appeared without a problem on flat soil around Robin. In places Robin couldn't feel arms appear objects were present preventing Robin from doing as she intended. Instead, in those places, arms would bloom from the ground near the objects and begin grasping them. When Robin felt bark, more arms would sprout from the backs of the hands on the ground and begin climbing up the tree. This continued until Robin was almost literally standing in a sea of three hundred arms.

"Not bad, Ms. Nico, not bad at all." Coverque said. He was clearly outside of Robin's initial range. Though he could hurt Robin by attacking her many arms right now, or even Robin herself, he knew it would risk giving away his position. He wouldn't act against Robin without certainty in his actions. To do otherwise against the woman was suicide. Robin couldn't tell where his voice was coming from. That was simple enough to remedy.

"_Oreja Fleur_." Robin whispered.

Robin was silent for a few moments. In that time the only sound was her many hands brushing the soil and tree bark. But then, a twig snapped. Robin, still with her eyes closed, turned towards the noise and looked straight at Coverque.

Coverque was surprised. His eyes, covered in protective sunglasses, locked with Nico Robin's eyelids. He told himself it had to be a coincidence. Nothing more. He stepped over to his left, and to his shock Robin, eyes closed, followed his movement. He was getting nervous, his breathing getting heavy. Without warning, arms suddenly shot out from the trees around him and grabbed him from his armpits. He looked behind him in surprise and saw, of all things, ears sticking out of the trees by the woman's arms.

Robin breathed a sigh of relief as the several hundred arms receded back from whence the came. She couldn't use her eyes. So instead she found her opponent by touch and sound. Trescientos Fleur helped her gain a clearer understanding of her surroundings. Following that, her Oreja Fleur created ears on the trees her arms had found. After that it was simply a matter of figuring out where the sounds Coverque made were at their loudest. And there would be her opponent, awaiting his defeat.

However, Coverque was not going to be defeated easily. Even though Robin held on to him tightly, she wasn't prepared for the sudden, massive lurch in weight when he suddenly lifted his feet from the ground and dropped. Robin had to let go to avoid breaking her arms. She heard Coverque pick himself up off the ground and move away. This wasn't right. He was a big man, but the weight she felt in that moment was far beyond what she believed it should have been.

"You're a real hard case, Ms. Nico." Coverque said, "But that wasn't quite good enough. Before my Streamers let up the place, you might have noticed the studs on my coat."

He was, clearly, referring to the many gaudy rhinestones that adorned his long overcoat.

"They do more than make me look good. Each one weighs about a pound. I have nearly two hundred on my person."

Robin understood now. Whatever he weighed normally, he also had an extra two hundred pounds on him. Which meant he was strong as well as clever. Robin had to make absolutely sure he didn't get close to her. Coverque wasn't about to let Robin make a clean escape. Though she couldn't open her eyes to see, Robin could clearly hear her enemy charging her. She didn't know what kind of attack was coming, and so didn't know how to dodge or block. She could barely squint with the bright light from the Phosphor Streamers. She prepared herself for the blow, but a voice from nowhere saved her.

"Gunpowder Star!"

Robin heard something fly by her and explode in front of her. She immediately recognized the voice as Usopp. He had come to aid her.

_Perfect._ Robin thought. Usopp was exactly the person she needed.

"Robin! Are you okay? I'm here to help!"

"Thank you, Long-Nose." she replied sincerely, "You arrived just in time."

"Well, this kind of battle is nothing for a warrior such as myself."

"I see." Robin said with a chuckle, "Do you have your sniper goggles on right now?"

"Of course." Usopp replied, "It's so bright around here it's the only way I can see to aim."

"Yes. It is rather bright here, isn't it?" Robin asked, as if making conversation, "May I borrow them?"

"What?" Usopp asked. That was when he noticed Robin had her eyes shut tight. That seemed to help Usopp realize what Robin was thinking. He closed his own eyes and helped place the headpiece on Robin's head. She moved the left eyepiece down to her own eye level. She ran her hand over the lens to make sure the darker, sun blocking lens was in place, and carefully opened her eye.

It was still unbearably bright, but Robin could see clearly enough now that Usopp's goggles blocked some of the light. She saw Coverque getting up off the ground. Now, Robin could fight him on more equal terms.

The first thing Robin did was spawn an arm right of out Coverque's chest and rip the sunglasses he wore right off his face. He was immediately blinded by his own trap and shut his eyes. He stumbled backwards a bit. When he was close enough to several trees, Robin called out.

"_Doscientos Fleur!_ Pluck!"

With perfect aim, two hundred arms spawned out of the area surrounding Coverque. One by one, they ripped off the many rhinestones off his coat. Plucking them and dropping them to the ground. Coverque felt the pulling along his coat and was able to guess easily enough what was happening. A group of hands suddenly gripped onto Coverque's face and pushed him onto his back.

"_Chrisantemo!_" Robin cried out. The two hundred arms receded back into the trees and soil and reappeared underneath Coverque. A group of arms pushed up on his back and held on to his arms and legs. The many arms appeared again as they seemed to stack up on top of one another. The arms kept going up and up until Coverque was suspended high in the air. Then, with no warning, the hands holding Coverque let go and the arms began to sink back into the soil. Coverque hung in the air for just a second before gravity claimed him. He fell to the ground and hit it with a heavy thud. He stopped moving, meaning if he wasn't dead, he was easily out cold.

Business taken care of, Robin looked around and used her arms to dismantle the pouches that were strung up. Looking around she found a container Coverque had apparently used to transport the Phosphor Streamers and stuffed them inside. When they were gone and the level of light was more bearable, she informed Usopp he could open his eyes. On doing so, he saw Robin, holding his goggles out for him to take back.

"Thank you for letting me use them." she said.

"Anytime." Usopp replied as he put the headset back onto his own head. He looked over and saw Robin's foe spread-eagled on the ground. For some reason, Usopp wasn't sure he wanted to know just what Robin had done. Looking at her, Usopp noticed her right eye was still shut tight.

"Chopper said you were hurt. Your eye?"

"I'll be fine." Robin replied, "So long as we can locate our doctor. Otherwise he may end up removing this eye rather than saving it."

Usopp was a little green in the face at the statement. How could Robin be so blithe at something as serious as losing an eye.

Usopp right behind, Robin went west. To the path in the center. As they moved, Usopp told Robin what had happened up to that point. 


	10. Down with Henchmen

**_ONE PIECE  
SITTING ON THE WAVES_  
CHAPTER 10: DOWN WITH HENCHMEN**  
BY  
Sgamer82

Sanji was dodging the attacks of his opponent, a brown haired woman who had introduced herself as Battako. She proved quite adept at hand-to-hand combat. Her style was similar to Sanji's own, utilizing mostly kicks. Unlike Sanji, however, she did use her hands for attack on occasion. Her style was mostly intent on making good use of her feminine figure's greater lower-body strength.

She had the big advantage in this fight. If it could even be called such. Sanji did not attempt a single direct attack since Battako had taken the offensive. It simply went against everything he stood for.

_Just as the boss said._ Battako thought, _In front of a woman the cook is helpless._

Battako attempted a high roundhouse kick to the side of Sanji's head. Sanji dived to his side and cart wheeled himself away from her. Battako was beginning to get frustrated. If he kept this up the fight would take all day. She considered unbuttoning her shirt and flashing him. That would almost certainly halt him long enough for a decisive blow. On the other hand, it was also completely shameless. She wasn't that annoyed by the cook that she'd stoop that low.

Meanwhile, Sanji's mind was going as fast as it could. He had to do something about this woman. But since he could not bring himself to strike her he didn't know what else to do. As he gazed upon her gorgeous, blemish-free face, he could barely keep himself focused. She was indeed quite beautiful by any standard. And, unlike the innocent Miss Nami, this woman knew exactly how she affected him. Sanji suddenly got hit with a thought. Fighting with feet was out, so he needed a different approach.

Battako charged Sanji and attempted a kick to his abdomen. Sanji successfully dodged the attack. Instead of running away, however, he instead took Battako's smooth, silky hand into his own.

"My Lady," Sanji said, "Your fighting ability is truly astonishing. That you would use it on this unworthy soul is indeed a great honor."

Battako couldn't believe what she was hearing. She was, more or less, trying to kill him, and he was _hitting on her!_

"Your grace and beauty exceed any I have seen before." he said in his most flattering tones, "Why must we indulge in as barbarous an act as fighting amongst one another?" Sanji bent down on one knee, "Why not you and I stop and leave this place?"

"Let go!" Battako spat, "Go with you? You don't even have a bounty worth taking! I'm only here to distract you!"

"I would gladly remain distracted, fixed by the beauty of your eyes as they gazed into my own."

To her own surprise, Battako began blushing. She could remember nobody who flattered her so. She had respect, but never had she experienced the sheer reverence this cook was offering.

"I had a wonderful thought just now." Sanji continued, "You and I can simply sail off together and leave all this. If you wished, you could join our crew. I would gladly cook the most wonderful banquets every night for you until I died."

Battako's face was completely red by now. This was too much. Standing there, holding his hand, she was honestly, seriously, considering running away with the pirate chef. It was a true effort to halt the cook's romantic words.

"I'm sorry." Battako said, "My loyalty is to my boss."

With that she began squeezing Sanji's hand. She was putting all her strength into it. Sanji had an agonizing (betrayed? Battako wondered) look on his face.

Sanji felt the pain in his hand. But besides that, he was angry. It was taking every ounce of his willpower not to prop himself up on his free hand and send a side kick into Battako. It wasn't over turning him down. His experiences in loved included as much failure as success. The reason he was so close to betraying his every principle was because she was attacking his hand. Women were Sanji's passion. Cooking was his life. If his hands were injured seriously enough he could be forever robbed of his cooking. But he couldn't do anything about it. He secretly hoped that something, anything, would stop her.

"Yaaaaahhh!" a voice cried out.

Chopper, in his four-legged form, came charging out of the trees and right into Battako. Chopper had head butted the woman and sent her flying into a tree. She hit her head against it and lost consciousness. Chopper reverted to the small, half-human/half-reindeer form and turned to address Sanji. Doing so was the only reason he was able to dodge the kick that came his way.

"Sanji?!" Chopper wailed, "What are you doing?"

"Barbarian!!" Sanji howled, "Beast! How dare you attack a helpless woman!"

"But Sanji she-" Chopper didn't get to finish. Sanji had begun chasing after him, forcing the reindeer to run for his life.

"I'll fillet you for that!" Sanji screamed as he ran after Chopper, "I'll make you suffer a thousand times over!! Chopper!!"

----------

The sniper was more trouble than he was worth. Zoro's being unable to see the enemy was turning into a bigger problem than he had expected. Several times now, he had just barely dodged a shot the sniper had fired. There were also times where he didn't dodge in time. The blood stains on his stomach and other parts of his clothes where bullets had either hit or grazed him were testaments to that.

Zoro would take comfort in the fact that the shots had yet to hit any vital points. However, this person he was fighting was a very good shot. Zoro suspected the guy was simply playing with him. That made Zoro more determined to show this person just what swordsmanship can do.

"You've dodged quite admirably, Mr. Roronoa." the sniper called out.

Hidden within the trees and foliage of the forests' west side, Tirsni "the Deadeye" watched and waited. He had fired at Roronoa Zoro several times now. Each time intending to wound or graze the swordsman.

"This game has gotten a bit tedious." he called out, "Time to finish this and show you which weapon is truly superior."

A gunshot fired again. Zoro began to move out of reflex. But a stronger instinct told him to stay still. A sudden pain ripped through Zoro's left shoulder as the bullets from the sniper's gun went right through it. As Zoro looked at the red hole that had appeared just below the shoulder, he realized that had he moved as he'd intended that bullet would have pierced his heart.

Those near-misses were intended to help the gunman learn Zoro's movements. When he was set, he'd simply fire a killing shot.

"If you'd done as I'd wanted, that would've killed you." the sniper called.

"You've got my movements figured out, don't you?"

"Correct, Mr. Roronoa. My nickname is 'Deadeye' because I can fire accurately even when my eyes are closed. Fact is, I couldn't miss if I tried."

_Well then, that changes everything. Zoro thought to himself, If what you say is true, then the question is no longer "How will_ I_ dodge?" Now it's "Where will_ you_ shoot?"_

Zoro knew what he needed to do. Zoro loosened his grip on the swords in his hands until the guards rested on top of his hands. He then tilted his head and opened his mouth, allowing the white handled sword Wadô-Ichimonji to slip down until its guard was resting on his cheek. He was going to need control for what he planned. Choking up on the grips was essential.

When another series of shots rang out Zoro moved immediately. He put the sword in his right hand across his chest, over his heart. Turned his head so the Wadô-Ichimonji was over his belly. The sword in his left hand protected his face. He felt an impact no his right hand sword, immediately followed by one on the mouth sword. Two spent bullets fell at Zoro's feet. A few more rounds were fired off with the same result. Zoro used his swords and blocked every bullet. There was a brief pause in the shots before more rang out. Zoro kept up his blocking, counting how many bullets were fired between pauses. This would let him know how many bullets the sniper's gun could fire before requiring reloading. Each shot also gave Zoro a better idea of where his enemy was hiding.

Meanwhile in the forest, Tirsni was getting frustrated. He had heard that "Hawk-Eye" Mihawk could deflect bullets with a sword. He had dismissed that as idle rumor and myth. But now he was seeing it with his own eyes and it was getting to him. How did this swordsman know what he was going to do? Tirsni fired off one last round before he began reloading.

"You told me," Zoro shouted, "That you wished to know which was superior. Swords or guns. Swords are the better weapon, and I'll tell you why. No matter what you do, a pistol will always be a pistol. A rifle always a rifle. But in the right hands, a sword becomes a cannon!"

_What's he babbling about?_ Tirsni wondered.

Wadô-Ichimonji stuck out of Zoro's mouth to the right. He took the blades in his hands and helt them outwards over his left shoulder, crossing them into an X-shape.

"_Santôryû..._"

What move could a swordsman possibly use from so far away?

"_Hyaku-hachi Pondo-Hô!!_"

Zoro swung his swords with all his strength. The force of his swings sent shockwaves flying towards the direction he heard the most shooting from. The "108 Pound Cannon" did its job, decimating much of the forest directly in front of Zoro. The waves flew right in the direction Tirsni was hiding in. He had attempted to get away but was hit by the waves as they washed over him. Tirsni felt his body was being slashed at as he fell to the ground. The pain was unbearable. He couldn't move. His eyesight was blurry. When his vision cleared, he saw Roronoa Zoro standing over him.

That was the last sight he remembered before Zoro knocked him out with a kick to the head.

----------

Zoro sheathed his swords as he looked at his fallen enemy, lying on the ground where the 108 Pound Cannon had left him. The fight was done. Now he needed to find the others in case anyone needed help. He was considering where to go first when the question was answered for him. Usopp and Robin arrived first. Robin seemed all right, though Zoro noticed she was keeping her right eye closed. Usopp was right behind but froze when he saw Tirsni and the area around him.

"Woah! Zoro!" Usopp cried out, "Did you do that?!"

"Yeah."

"Don't you think you overdid things a bit?"

"Not at all. The guy was hiding. I had to hit him somehow."

That was the main reason Zoro used all three of his swords in his cannon. He only had a rough idea of where the sniper had been hiding. He needed to cover as wide an area as possible. So he needed the full hundred eight pounds.

"Hey." Zoro said, looking to Robin, "You all right?"

"I should be fine." Robin replied, "But I will need our doctor's services."

No sooner had Robin mentioned him than Chopper came running out the other side of the forest screaming bloody murder. Right behind him came Sanji, who seemed determined to make him the crew's next meal. Chopper saw Usopp and hid behind him. More accurately, he stood next to Usopp's legs rather than behind them.

"Usopp!" Sanji shouted, "Move out of the way!"

"What? Why? What did Chopper do?"

"He harmed a lady, that's what he did!!"

"This lady wouldn't happen to have been one of the bounty hunters they sent after you?" Zoro asked.

"I don't care about petty labels like that! He harmed a lady!!"

"Mr. Cook," Robin interjected, "I'd rather you didn't hurt the doctor. I'll be needing him."

"Huh?" Sanji then noticed Robin's eye, "Ah!! What did those bastards do to you?!"

"It's nothing the two of us couldn't handle" Robin said, with a nod to Usopp.

"Really?" Chopper asked, he looked to Usopp, "Then you really saved her? Like you said you would?"

"Of course!" Usopp boasted, unable to resist, "The big guy was charging at Robin when I, great pirate Captaaaaain Usopp, launched into the fray and brought him down!"

"Wow!" Chopper said in delight.

Zoro cleared his throat. All other discussion halted.

"We have other things to worry about right now."

"You're right." Robin said, "We need to get to the orphanage and make sure the captain and navigator are safe."

Zoro nodded. Sanji lit up a cigarette as he chimed in.

"Our darling Robin here should have her eye looked at as soon as possible. We should send her back to the _Merry_ with Chopper."

Everyone nodded.

"Meantime, the rest of us should head to the Chibi no Mi and see to Luffy." Usopp said.

"Right." Zoro said, "Chopper, Robin, in case we need you try and join us as soon as you can."

"But her eye..."

"I'm not telling you to do it half-assed." Zoro told Chopper, "Don't rush it. Just do what you can as soon as you can."

Chopper acknowledge the swordsman's order. He transformed to his animal form and beckoned for Robin to get on. She sat side-saddle on Chopper's back as the reindeer took her back to the ship.

Sanji, Zoro, and Usopp started running north, towards the Chibi no Mi Nursery.


	11. End or Beginning

**_ONE PIECE  
SITTING ON THE WAVES_  
CHAPTER 11: END AND BEGINNING**  
BY  
Sgamer82

Huncaza assumed a boxing-style fighting stance as he held up his fists. On them were brass knuckle type weapons fitted with what appeared very much to be the fangs of an animal on them.

"I'll have to take you by force then, eh Captain Monkey?"

"No you won't. We'll beat you before you can do that."

Huncaza couldn't help but ask.

"Who's we?"

He regretted it almost immediately. Luffy whispered something to a boy standing next to him, who grabbed onto Luffy's wrist. With the boy still holding on, Luffy ran at Huncaza. Luffy zig-zagged his way through the crowd of children stuck in place by the Coverque's trapping gel, spread out along the yard.

"Gomu-Gomu..." Luffy began.

That seemed to be a signal as the boy suddenly threw Luffy's hand as high into the air as he could. Luffy's hand began its snap-back down from the air, far above the head of even the tallest child present.

"...BULLET!!"

Luffy's fist came down hard and hit Huncaza right in the face. Luffy pushed his fist downward, so that Huncaza would go straight to the ground rather than be sent flying. Luffy then stopped his charge and turned to face Huncaza.

"...and!"

Luffy shot his foot straight up into the air, so high up the foot itself could no longer be seen, and brought it stomping down with all his strength behind it.

"...BATTLE-AX!!"

Huncaza just barely rolled out of the way in time to dodge Luffy's attack. Huncaza was glad he had, as the force of it had made cracks in the rock hard gel they fought on. Luffy wasted no time with his next attack. As soon as his leg was back to normal, he ran at Huncaza to give him a good old-fashioned punch to the jaw. Huncaza was ready to charge himself and counterattack but suddenly found himself unable to move.

He looked down to see two of the orphanage brats holding on to his legs. He didn't get a chance to pry them loose before Luffy's punch hit him. The kids couldn't hang on to him so Huncaza fell backward a short distance before he hit the ground. Huncaza picked himself up and looked at the pirate, who was grinning.

"Still wanna know who 'we' are?" he asked.

Huncaza looked around. He saw that all the children around were looking at him. They were all smiling, but judging by the angry looks in their eyes that meant nothing good for Huncaza himself. Huncaza realized "we" meant Luffy and the children together. He wasn't protecting them at all. He was drafting them. Worse yet, all the childrens' fear evaporated at the sight of Luffy's fighting with the aid of the children who had helped him attack the bounty hunter.

"We're gonna send you flying outta here." Luffy told him.

"Oh, yeah?" Huncaza ran at Luffy. However, he wound up flat on his face when a little girl bent herself down in front of him to make him trip. The girl was rubbing her side where Huncaza's leg had hit her. But she smiled as she gave Luffy a thumbs up. Luffy laughed and gave one back.

This was not how Huncaza had planned for this to happen.

----------

Leda watched the fight in amazement. The children had been terrified until Luffy had entered the fray. She was furious he would so recklessly endanger them. However, she would have to admit that it seemed to be doing the children more good than harm. Thanks largely to them, Luffy was trouncing the bounty hunter.

Leda looked to Nami, who watched the fight and cheered Luffy on. She was holding Luffy's hat close to her head, determined not to let it get blown away or fall of her head. The children who were too far away to aid Luffy directly were cheering the pirate on. As she watched it all unfold, she considered all that had brought them to this point.

Truthfully, she couldn't have cared less that Huncaza was trying to capture Luffy. Luffy was a pirate. Huncaza a bounty hunter. She was not upset that she was lied to from the start. She could even forgive being tricked into regressing someone against their will. However, something stuck in Leda's mind. Something she wanted to make absolutely sure Huncaza regretted. He had endangered the lives of her children, for no purpose other than his own greed. That was something Leda absolutely would not forgive. She would not allow Huncaza to be defeated until she had her say.

"_Quindecim._"

Leda concentrated. In less than a second she felt her body begin its change. The simple blue dress she wore began to feel loose around her shoulders. Her height decreased slowly, but steadily. The wisps of gray hair in her otherwise blonde head began to turn a bright yellow. The beginnings of wrinkles disappeared from her face. She transformed herself from a woman in her mid-thirties to a young teenager. Her younger, smaller body, had no problem stepping out of the green concrete she had been trapped in moments ago. Her shoes remained trapped inside, but her bare feet were small enough now that they came out with ease. She began to walk towards the battle, holding her skirt so as not to trip over herself.

----------

This wasn't how things were supposed to go at all. Huncaza had expected the brats to be wetting themselves in fright. Not aiding the person he was trying to capture. His every attempt to attack Luffy now was hindered by them. They would either grab or trip Huncaza or help Luffy stretch his body for attacks. Huncaza had to figure out something and fast. He saw his opportunity nearby. Immediately he got up and ran to Nami. Luffy stopped in his tracks when Huncaza stood behind her and held one of the animal fangs on his knuckles to her throat. Nami began shaking as she held on to Luffy's hat more tightly.

"Lookie, here, Captain Monkey!" Huncaza said, "I've got your little friend at my mercy!"

Luffy cocked back his fist.

"I wouldn't do that, Captain." Huncaza warned, "No matter how fast you move, I can slit this little girl's throat before you get anywhere near me."

Nami's body went limp at Huncaza's threat. Her hands fell from Luffy's hat to her sides. She was breathing heavily. She was frightened. But seeing what Luffy and all the other kids had done made her do something reckless. She clenched her hands into fists and, without warning, swung her head backwards to try and head butt Huncaza. This wouldn't have really done much, were it not for the fact that Nami's head was at the same approximate height as Huncaza's groin.

He howled in pain and staggered backwards. He heard Luffy call something, but didn't hear it. He also didn't see Luffy run at Huncaza as two children, a boy and girl, held their hands out in front of Luffy, palms up. Luffy stepped on their hands and leapt as they pushed up, giving Luffy a bit more height when he jumped.

Luffy got just high enough that he was able to land directly behind the incapacitated Huncaza. He took hold of the bounty hunter's shoulders and began twisting his torso around as tightly as he could. As soon his body was at its limit, Luffy used his feet to clamp onto Huncaza's sides.

"I told you before we would beat you!" Luffy told him, "Gomu-Gomu..."

Luffy let go of his enemy's shoulders, causing his body to start spinning in an attempt to regain its normal form. Luffy kept his hands open so that, as his body unfolded, he constantly kept slapping Huncaza in the back.

"...BOWGUN!!!"

When Luffy's body fully untangled itself he released his feet from Huncaza. The power of Luffy's blows sent Huncaza flying high into the air. A few seconds later, he plummeted to the ground, landing on the path beside the orphanage. He remained conscious, but he wouldn't be moving soon.

"We win!" Luffy yelled as Huncaza landed.

"We win!" Nami yelled, mimicking Luffy.

"So..." Luffy said as he looked at his fallen adversary, "What should we do with him?"

"I dunno." Nami said. Luffy and Huncaza were both behind her, so she had to turn in place as best she could to see them.

"I will handle that." a girl said.

Luffy and Nami looked to see a young teenage girl, no more than fifteen. She walked over to them, holding onto a dress that seemed a couple sizes too big for her.

"Who're you?" Luffy asked.

"I am Leda." she replied.

"Miss Leda?" Nami asked in astonishment. No way was this girl the nice lady who had taken care of her today.

"No way." Luffy said, "She's an older lady."

"I can change my age." Leda replied.

"Oh yeah?" Luffy asked, "Great. That must mean you're the person we're looking for who changed my friend to a kid."

"I will rectify that as soon as I can. But first thing is first."

----------

When Huncaza's vision began to focus properly again, he saw a girl who appeared very familiar standing over him. Half-conscious, it took him a moment to realize who he was looking at.

"Huncaza." she said, "There is something I need to tell you. This may not come as a shock, but because of my Devil Fruit's powers I have lived far longer than any normal human being. I gained the power of the Era-Era Fruit when I was seventeen. I ate it as a before-dinner snack. That was several centuries ago.

"At first, I used this power selfishly. I would become older, or younger, and allow myself to eavesdrop on people who thought I was some silly toddler, or a daft old woman who didn't know what they were talking about. I learned all kinds of gossip that way and passed it along. But that got tiresome after a while. I began to feel that I should do something more worthwhile with my powers. My opportunity came in the form of a medical ship that had stopped for repairs in Redisca. A patient aboard was a young man who had witnessed horrors that drove him mad.

"I felt a powerful sorrow for this man, who was to be taken to a sanitarium to live out his days because of something he could not have helped. It was then I learned my purpose. I explained myself to the doctors and convinced them of my intent. That was the first time I changed the age of another human being. I took the man all the way back to his infancy and personally raised him to adulthood. He grew up happy, healthy, and his descendants even now continue to live in this village.

"It became my calling. I would use my powers to help those whose lives had taken turns for the worse. Those who desired nothing but a second chance to do things right. Whether their suffering was from illness, trauma, or even their own actions it mattered not. I would grant any person who came to me the chance to start over.

"But I quickly realized just how powerful I could be. I realized just how much damage I could do if I ever misused my abilities. Therefore, after my first child grew up, I made a vow. I would never use my powers on someone against their will. If I wished to be successful in my desires, I had to be stern with myself."

She looked at Nami.

"I couldn't let myself be swayed into making a horrible mistake."

She returned her gaze to Huncaza.

"However, I make one critical exception to my otherwise ironclad rule. There is only one thing that would make me use my powers on a completely unwilling subject. The rule is quite simple: Any person who harms my children shall become one himself!"

Huncaza listened to Leda's story with growing panic. He couldn't let her do it. He struck out with his fist, still armed with the shark-tooth knuckles, and punched Leda in the stomach. The fangs dug into her, but Leda did not allow that to stop her. Nami cried out and Luffy could only watch in confusion. Leda continued what she was doing, ignoring her injury. She held out her hand, and placed it on Huncaza's forehead.

"No..." he said weakly.

"Yes." Leda responded, "_Infantia_!!"

----------

As Leda stood over him, his fanged knuckles in her belly, Huncaza felt his body begin to change. As it did, he wondered to himself where it had all gone wrong.

Had he underestimated the Straw Hats? Most likely. He didn't know how the others had fared. But that meant little now.

Should he not have involved Leda? Bringing her in on the plan was certainly biting him in the backside now.

Were his plans not good enough? They had been. Unfortunately, he'd severely miscalculated on just what his targets were capable of.

In the end, Huncaza realized the answer to all his questions was "yes." He had, quite simply, gotten in over his head.

Huncaza's final thoughts as an adult, before his mind was lost to childhood, were "If I could do it again, I'd handle it all quite differently." 


	12. Recovery

**_ONE PIECE  
SITTING ON THE WAVES_  
CHAPTER 12: RECOVERY**  
BY  
Sgamer82

Zoro, Usopp, and Sanji arrived just in time to witness the caretaker of the Chibi no Mi Nursery turn the man who had been threatening their lives into a helpless infant. Leda fell to her side, the front of her dress staining red with blood. Luffy immediately rushed to get her. The other men ran over to see what they could do. Sanji took the now baby Huncaza, extracting him from the animal skins that were now far too large, and carried him inside. Luffy followed carrying Leda. Zoro examined the green substance the children were trapped in and mulled over how to best remove it. Usopp pulled a pellet out of his bag, put it into his slingshot and aimed straight up into the air.

"Red Snake Star!" he yelled as he fired. A stream of red smoke emerged from his slingshot and went high into the air. It would be an unmistakable sign for Chopper and Robin to come quick as they could.

"What's going on here?" asked som people approaching from the north. Redisca villagers attracted by the smoke.

"We need some help!" Usopp answered, "Is there a doctor anywhere? There's someone injured!"

"Where?" asked an older gentleman stepping out of the crowd.

"Inside."

The doctor went in to tend to Leda. Sanji had performed some basic first aid, but the doctor would be able to fully treat her wounds. Meanwhile, Zoro tried to explain what had happened to the villagers, describing the bounty hunter's apparent attempt to use the children as hostages. Usopp took his turn examining the green stone himself. He took another pellet out of his bag, something he had been cooking up just recently. Usopp threw it straight down and watched as the area immediately around the pellet began to bubble. When it stopped, the area was so brittle that a boy nearest where Usopp had thrown the ball was able to pull himself free.

"I was right!" Usopp exclaimed, "My new Acid Stars were just the thing!"

There was a cheer from the children.

"Now I just need to make more of them!"

There was a groan from the children.

"Sorry! I just started making them." Usopp told the kids, "It shouldn't take too long though." He sat down, opened his bag , and got to work. It took a while, but Usopp eventually made enough Acid Stars to cover all the green stone in front of the orphanage. Every child was happy to finally be able to move freely again. Most had rushed inside the orphanage to see how Leda was doing. Others, however, were ushered to Chopper when he arrived with Robin, now sporting an eye patch over her damaged eye, to be checked for injuries.

Fortunately, they were mostly unhurt. The single worst injury was the little girl who had used her own body to trip Huncaza in the fight. She was sporting a large bruise on her side where his leg had hit her. But with all the fights the _Going Merry_'s crew got into, Chopper had plenty of ointments for bruises. Otherwise there was nothing more drastic than a few kids the fear of the situation had gotten to. Fortunately a change of clothes was more or less all that was required. Leda was doing fairly well. She wasn't in critical shape, however the blood loss had the village doctor and Chopper both concerned. She would need some time to recover. Which meant there would be some time before she could restore Nami.

In Leda's absence, the local villagers looked after the orphanage children. None were burdened by doing so. Many of Redisca's citizens were, in fact, children Leda herself had raised. This was the least they could do to pay her back.

The only exception was Nami, who joined the crew in returning to the _Going Merry_ to rest and recuperate until Leda awoke. The pirates considered her their responsibility. Nami also refused to be separated from Luffy. They seemed to get on well. Better than they usually did when Nami was an adult, at least.

"Come on! Can't I have it?" Luffy begged Robin, "I'm the captain! Pirate captain's should get to wear eye patches!"

"Yeah!" Nami chimed in from next to Luffy, "Pirates wear eye patches!"

"Captain, the doctor told me to keep this eye patch on until my eye fully healed. He doesn't want it exposed to light while it's healing."

"Aww..." whined Luffy and Nami.

"But..." Robin continued, "I promise that as soon as the doctor says I no longer need it you can have it."

"Really?!" Luffy asked excitedly. He ran to join Chopper and Usopp, "Hey, Chopper! Tell Robin she doesn't need her eye patch anymore!"

Luffy became Chopper's problem for the rest of the trip back; little Nami right behind. She shadowed Luffy every step of the way.

When they reached the _Merry_, Nami ran right to it. She was amazed, unable to remember ever seeing such a big ship. She told everyone the only boats she knew were fishing boats back in her home in Cocoyashi. She especially loved the tangerine trees on the ship. They reminded Nami of home. The crew made a point not to explain that home was exactly where they came from.

The rest of the day was spent with Chopper treating Sanji and Zoro's injuries. Luffy only got a few scratches in his fight, so he and Usopp instead concentrated on occupying Nami. Robin sat on the steps to the tangerine grove, content to watch the fun rather than participate. They played tag for a while. Nami proved to be a very energetic little girl. She and Luffy were still running to and fro long after Usopp had gotten worn out and had to sit with Robin. They went on for another half-hour until Sanji called them in for an early lunch.

The meal was, as always, wonderful. The crew dug in, being sure to keep an eye out for Luffy's hands; a practice that had become common practice for each of them since joining the crew. Robin had developed the habit of making hands sprout from the table to slap away Luffy's whenever he made a grab for someone else's plate. The meal went peacefully until Nami suddenly began to cry. All eyes turned to her.

"Mr. Luffy took my food!" she wailed.

"N'I'Di'n!" Luffy said through a full mouth.

Not surprisingly, nobody believed him. Sanji provided Nami a fresh plate as well as a small bowl of ice cream from the freezer. Not one member of the crew thought to ask about the sauce stains around her mouth and on her clothes. Nor the odd smile on her face as she ignored the actual food and started on the ice cream. After lunch, Nami ran out to the deck with Luffy.

"Whaddya wanna do now? Huh?" She asked. This had been an exciting day for her so far.

Luffy answered her question by falling backwards onto the deck and going to sleep.

"But... I don't wanna take a nap!" Nami said, yawning midway through her sentence. She too lied down and fell asleep. Once she was out, Zoro walked over and woke Luffy. Robin came and picked up Nami, intending to put her in her own bed. She made sure to thoroughly hide any and all evidence of Nami's adult life before joining the others in the lounge. They didn't need another incident like last night when she was thirteen.

"So what'd you wake me up for?" Luffy asked when they were all together. Usopp answered.

"Luffy, we need to decide what to do if... if..." he really didn't want to say it, "...if Leda can't reverse what she did to Nami. We need to figure out what to do with her."

"Why wouldn't she change Nami back?" Luffy asked.

"It may not be a matter of 'will' or 'won't.' I talked to some people while I was getting the kids free. They know about Leda's powers. A lot of them were even changed by them before. But they all said that they couldn't think of a single time Leda reversed a transformation she'd done on someone else."

"Not surprising." Robin interjected, "Up until now, she's probably never had reason to. Everyone came to her seeking her powers and expecting the result to be permanent."

"Meaning , then, there's a chance Miss Nami can't return to her older self at all." Sanji said.

There was a moment of silence at the thought of losing Nami to her child self.

"So what'll we do?" Chopper asked.

"We take her home."

The crew looked to Luffy, surprised he had a decision already. A logical one, at that.

"A kid like her can't handle the sea." Luffy said. When he realized Nami might not come back, Luffy immediately remembered the words of "Red-Haired" Shanks' first mate. Something he had been told when he wasn't much older than Nami now, and begging Shanks to let him join his crew.

_"The safety of the entire crew rests on the Captain's shoulders."_

Luffy was always confident that, should his crewmates be unable to do so themselves, he could protect them. But that wasn't the case with Nami. With her, that wasn't an option. The crew couldn't argue. Worst come to worst, it was the only option.

"Does that mean we'll have to go all the way back to Reverse Mountain?" Usopp asked.

"Not necessarily." Zoro commented, "Robin, does Nami still have an Eternal Pose for Alabasta?"

Robin nodded. They had gotten the Pose from the island of Little Garden, and Nami had kept it as a memento of their time with the Alabastan princess, Nefertari Vivi. It would be far simpler a matter to leave Nami in Vivi's care. She could more easily ensure Nami's safety and trip home if she needed to return to Cocoyashi. There was no worry about what would happen to Nami upon returning home. Given all she had done for the village, not a single person in Cocoyashi would hesitate for a second to make sure Nami was cared for.

The crew sat in silence after that. Each of them silently hoping their navigator would return to them. 


	13. The More Things Change

**_ONE PIECE  
SITTING ON THE WAVES_  
CHAPTER 13: THE MORE THINGS CHANGE**  
BY  
Sgamer82

It was late in the afternoon when Leda stood over the prisoners. Huncaza's men, arrested by Redisca's villagers and brought before Leda, sat on the grass in front of the Chibi no Mi tied up in a row. Leda's injuries were gone. Once she had regained consciousness, she was able to use her aging powers to speed up the healing process. She wasn't immune to scars, though, and a small row of them now ran across her stomach. Now healed, it was time to deal with other matters. Tirsni, Battako, Coverque, and the hired muscle watched as Leda paced back and forth in front of them. Each of them were struck with the mental image of a matron preparing to punish a group of naughty children.

"Huncaza is gone." she said. Leda had shown them the infant Huncaza. They knew precisely what she meant, "Now, you were not directly involved in Huncaza's crime of harming my children. However, you did aid and abet his plans. With that in mind, I am prepared to offer you a choice."

The bounty hunters weren't sure they liked where this was headed.

"You all, more likely than not, have done some deeds that the World Government and the Navy would be interested in hearing about. You allied yourselves with Huncaza because he worked with the government. It protected you from unwanted scrutiny. But now, that protection is gone. Chances are your checkered pasts are about to catch up with you very soon."

They _definitely_ didn't like where this was heading.

"So, here is your choice: I will set you free. But I will do so with every intention of reporting your deeds to the Navy once you are gone. Otherwise, you can submit to me, and join our happy little family here. I will even allow you to be the age of your choice, so long as it is under eight years. I will need plenty of time to make sure you grow up right."

Leda left them to mull over the choice for a moment. There wasn't much of one, to some of them. Leda had been right on the mark with some of them. Huncaza, as a bounty hunter with government ties, had given them legitimacy that had, until now, protected them. So now they were left to decide between escaping with a small head start, at best. Or they could have the problem removed a different way.

"Hmph." Tirsni snorted, "I ain't done nothin' to worry about. The Navy won't care about me. I'll be on my way."

"Very well." Leda gestured to a man standing nearby, who cut the sniper loose, "Anyone else?"

The others hesitated. Tirsni was really still a kid himself, the same age as most of the Straw Hats. Unlike the others, he hadn't had a good chance to get himself into trouble yet.

"I... I'll stay..." Coverque said eventually, "I'll stay here. I can't be caught..."

Half the hired men had opted to be released with Tirsni. However, a few, along with Coverque and also Battako, chose to remain in Redisca. When those leaving were cut loose and sent on their way, Leda addressed those remaining.

"Now that's settled, I have some business to attend to. I'll leave you to start thinking about what you'd like to do with your second chance. We'll take care of you when I return."

Leda then left to rectify a serious mistake if it wasn't already too late.

----------

The sun had begun to set as some of the _Going Merry's_ crew were playing cards. Luffy, Nami, Usopp, and Chopper sat on the deck playing. Sanji had busied himself making refreshments for everyone to tide them over until dinner. Zoro was training with his swords. Robin took her medicine, eye drops Chopper had mixed for her. The card players called time out on their game to watch that. Robin didn't take eye drops in the conventional way. She sat in a shady spot under one of Nami's tangerine trees and made a right eye blossom right out of the floor. It was hard for the others to decide if they should've been intrigued or disgusted by the eye, which was red and bloodshot. Robin, not noticing or not bothered by the audience, applied the drops to it. When she finished Luffy and company went back to their game, making a note to come back in three or four hours, when Robin was to take her medicine next.

"Nami," Usopp asked, "What are you doing?"

Nami currently held nearly a dozen cards in her hand.

"The more cards you have the better player you are."

"Where did you hear that?" Usopp asked. He was surprised when she pointed to Chopper, who also had a dozen cards in his hand.

"And you got it from?" Chopper pointed to Luffy. He had two dozen cards in his hand. When Usopp realized the three of them were holding nearly the entire deck, he put down his measly three cards and walked off; trying to ignore Luffy's telling Chopper and Nami that he had lost because he had the fewest cards. That was when he saw people on the path to the docks. Usopp pulled down one of his headset's lenses and turned it, zooming in on the person who walked towards the docks.

"Hey! Everyone!" he called, "It's Leda!"

Usopp lowered a gangplank for Leda so she could come aboard. Everyone eyed her with skepticism. Only Nami, unaware of Leda's role in recent events, greeted her happily.

"Good afternoon." Leda said with a polite bow, "I have come to say a few things. And also to hopefully fix the problem I have caused. But, before I begin..." she glanced carefully to Nami. Usopp caught the hint.

"Hey, Nami. How about we go to the dining room. I got a story for you."

"You do?!" Nami asked excitedly, "What's it about?"

"A princess, who becomes a thief to save her people from evil fish monsters!"

"Woah!!" Nami cried out.

Usopp led Nami away. It had been his idea to tell Nami her own story in this fashion. At best, it would be a simple distraction to keep Nami entertained for a little while. But, should the worst come to pass, it was the crew's hope hearing the story beforehand would help to soften the inevitable heartache that would come from seeing her sister far older than she remembered and learning that her mother had been dead for the past eight years. Leda waited until Nami was out of earshot before she began.

"First, I would like to apologize for all I have done. While I would like to say that Huncaza deceived me. That he tricked me into violating my most sacred of oaths. I will not. They are true, but that does not change what I have done. I always teach my children to never run from responsibility. I couldn't raise them well if I didn't live by the very same principles. Therefore, I apologize. I confess my understanding that apologies are of little help. Which brings me to why I have come. I can promise nothing, but I will attempt to restore Nami to the way she was."

"Really?!" Luffy asked.

"But..." Zoro said, sensing a catch.

"There is a legitimate chance I will be unable to do so. I have always been able to affect myself either way, as you can see."

Leda was currently back to how they had met her, a woman in her mid-thirties.

"But, honestly, I do not remember any time that I progressed another person's age. Even if I can do so in body, I do not know if I could do so in mind."

Luffy, Zoro, and Chopper stared at her blankly. Sanji and Robin were the first to understand.

"You're saying, Madam, is that even if you can give Miss Nami back her adult body, she may still possess a child's mind?"

"Meaning that even attempting this could be pointless." Robin added. Leda nodded.

"Should that happen, I will immediately put Nami back at five years. She will, of course, be welcome to remain he-"

"That won't be necessary." Zoro interrupted.

"We'll take her home." Luffy said, "We'll go all the way back to the start of the Grand Line if we have to."

"Miss Nami has an elder sister who we know will gladly take care of her."

"I see." Leda smiled, "Only now do I see how badly Huncaza deceived me. You truly are good friends to her. I am happy to know she will be protected ,whatever the outcome."

It was no lie. While it wasn't even for a full day, Leda considered Nami one of her children. No different than any other boy or girl at the orphanage. It was a great comfort to her to know Nami would be safe.

"Shall I begin immediately?" Leda asked.

"Let's wait until she's done with her story." Robin suggested, "I've heard it's worth listening to."

Leda joined the crew as they watched Usopp spin his tale. Except Luffy and Zoro, who fell asleep, Usopp had his audience riveted to their seats. Especially Nami, who was bouncing in excitement when the story was full of action, and crying her eyes out when Usopp had reached the sad points. Even Sanji, the only one aside from Usopp who knew the story already, was impressed. He was telling it almost exactly as they ha been told by Nojiko. Despite Usopp's preference to exaggerate, he knew how important this was. He changed nothing in the story except the fact that its "Princess" was Nami herself.

Leda listened intently, knowing what it was she was hearing. When the story was finished, Nami was laughing out loud at the thief princess' robbing everyone in her kingdom before sailing away with the pirates that saved her island. Once she had calmed down, Leda took her to the womens' quarters, where Robin had laid out some of Nami's adult sized clothing. Her current dress wasn't going to fit if this succeeded.

After having Nami undress, Leda put her hand on the girl's forehead. Leda concentrated, harder than she had on anything before in her life. She felt her hand slowly rise as Nami's body grew taller. As Nami approached adolescence the mark of "Saw-Tooth" Arlong appeared on the back of her left shoulder. As she reached her late teens and true age, the tattoo changed to another. A pinwheel with a tangerine on its top wing. When Leda released Nami's head, she saw Nami was approximately at the same age she had been when they first met at the Nursery. It was hard to know with concrete certainty, but Leda had a feeling she was at the right point. But, this was only the body. Now for the real test.

"Nami?"

Nami slouched a little and groaned before holding up her head, suddenly alert.

"M-Mi... Ms. Leda?" Nami asked. Leda nodded. Nami recognized her, but that wasn't a sure sign.

"Where are you?" Leda asked. Nami looked at her surroundings before answering.

"This is my room on the _Merry_."

"And on what island is the ship docked?"

"Re... Redisca island?" Nami answered.

"Very good. One more. How old are you?"

"What?" Nami asked, becoming more aware of her surroundings, "That's a silly question. I'm eighteen years old. Now, I have a few questions of my own. One, why are you on the _Merry_? Two, why am I naked? And three..."

Outside, all the crew heard Nami's yelling and smiled. There was no doubt. Their navigator was back.


	14. Epilogue

**_ONE PIECE  
SITTING ON THE WAVES_  
EPILOGUE**  
BY  
Sgamer82

"Geez, Chopper!" Nami complained as Chopper applied the stethoscope. She hated those things. Chopper let her go as he wrote down on his clipboard again. Now that she was back to normal, Chopper wanted to get the correct information on Nami for his records. What no one said aloud was that it was also to make sure Nami _was_ back to normal.

Two days had passed since Leda had restored Nami to herself. Nami still couldn't believe what had happened to her. Her memory of the past few days was fuzzy at first. But soon she remembered everything that had happened while under the effects of the Era-Era Fruit. As glad as she was it was all over, Nami had to admit being a kid again for a while hadn't been that bad. She could understand why people would actively seek out Leda's powers. However, Nami had no desire to live her life over again. She was out in the world, chasing her dream. Something she could only do as an adult. Nami tried hard not to hold anything against Leda. The woman had only done what she thought was right. That didn't stop Nami from being at least a little ticked off at the woman. She had very nearly been lost because of Leda. As a result, she had remained on the ship instead of going into town. Going to town meant passing the Chibi no Mi Nursery. She didn't want to risk causing a scene in the event she saw Leda right now.

Nami knew she would end up heading up the path sooner or later. There was still a coulpe of weeks to go before the Log Pose would allow the crew to leave. Nami wouldn't be able to avoid leaving the boat in all that time. Though while she didn't quite feel like leaving yet, she was starting to get restless. She had checked her maps and put her room back in order. She made sure to put back in its proper place everything Robin had hidden from Nami while she was a kid. She tended to her trees, went for a swim and did Chopper's physical. But she still felt like doing _something._

Nami looked to see what the others were doing. Zoro, Sanji, and Robin were gone. Apparently they wanted to find out what had happened to the other members of Huncaza's crew. They had seen some boats with Zoro's sniper and a few others leaving the harbor. However some of th crew were missing, and both Sanji and Robin confirmed that none of their enemies had died. Leda had not told the crew anything about the fate of Huncaza's crew. They would be quite surprised when they arrived at the Chibi no Mi Nursery and found some new, familiar-looking children in Leda's care. That just left Nami with Chopper, Usopp, and Luffy aboard the _Merry_. Chopper was going over his clipboard while Usopp seemed to be trying to explain something to Luffy. Nami was suddenly struck with an idea. But it was silly. Childish, even.

"Aw, what the heck." Nami said to herself as she walked to where Luffy and Usopp were sitting and talking.

"Now, Luffy," Usopp explained for the third time, "What you're _supposed_ to do when someone pulls your finger, is-"

He didn't finish his sentence because Nami had, to his surprise, come up behind Luffy and slapped him in the back of the head. Luffy looked up at Nami, who merely smiled.

"Tag. You're it."

With that she suddenly ran for her tangerine trees. Luffy laughed out loud and immediately gave chase, with Usopp and eventually Chopper right behind.

* * *

**AUTHORS' NOTES: **I hope you all enjoyed the story. 

Now that it's complete, I thought I'd add in something to top it off with. If anybody was wondering about the title, "_Sitting on the Waves_," I first want to point out that, I like wordplay, but I don't like it obvious. This is a prime example of that.

For any who may not be aware, the Japanese word for "Waves" is "Nami." That in mind, the title could be "Sitting on the Nami." The joke is that, with the plot of the story being Nami becoming a kid, you could also read it as "Nami-sitting."


End file.
